Opening a jar with a tight cap is often tedious, especially for persons with limited manual strength, such as persons with arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and the like. Therefore, various attempts have been made to provide a retaining holder for a jar during the opening thereof, such as the pad-type jar gripper as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,361 of Bingaman. However, the resilient compressible angular array of upwardly extending fingers of Bingaman '361 cannot be adjusted for jars of varying diameters.
Other jar holders include wedge shaped retaining walls, wherein the cap of the jar is inserted in a wide open portion until the diameter of the cap is gripped by the retaining members, at a point where the opening between the corresponding parts of the retaining walls, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 258,192 of Maloney, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 296,293 of Wheeler, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 333,958 of Wheeler, and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 257,318 of Zorzi.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,729 of Brown includes a wedge shaped pair of gripping handles having a gripping band tightenable around a cap to be removed. However, these openers grip the cap only, and do not hold the jar to which the cap is attached, which further reveals the need for a jar gripper, as opposed to a cap gripper. The user still has to grip the jar of a generally wider diameter, which is a problem for persons with limited gripping powers.
Other screw cap removers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,470 of Woloszyn, which includes a lockable cam urging jaw members about a jar cap to be loosened, U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,115 of Olsson, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 265,647 also of Olssen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,801 of Morrison, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 351,970 of Barrio, U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,765 of Bennett, which includes worm gears moving gripping surfaces against a lid, U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,806 of Panemest, U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,251 of Hardman, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 303,343 of Nuss, U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,781 of Grise, which includes a lid engaging funnel with a gripping insert therein, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 249,323 of Hutson and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 249,324 also of Hutson. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,741 of Mikituk describes a locking system for tightening a blending jar of a blender in place for performing a blending operation.